Resiliently deformable model railway truck assembly



Feb. 4, 1964 J. H. HAHN 3,120,030

RESILIENTLY DEFORMABLE MODEL RAILWAY TRUCK ASSEMBLY Filed Oct. 9. 1961 4INVENTOR.

JAMES H. HAHN United States Patent 3,120,680 RESILIENTLY DEFQRMABLEMODEL RAILWAY TRUQK ASSEMBLY James H. Hahn, Glenview, Ill., assignor toPaul W. Lindherg, Highland Park, Ill. Filed Oct. 9, 196 Ser. No. 143,9044 (llaims. (Cl. 46-221) This invention relates to a construction of atruck assembly for scale model railway equipment.

The novel truck assembly for a scale model railway car produced inaccordance with this invention is characterized by a universal typemulti-directional resiliency which is provided by an H-shapedbolster-end plate configuration with spring means resilientlyinterconnecting the bolster to the end plates such that the bolster isresiliently deformable in a horizontal direction relative to anassembled truck positioned on its guiding rails. Additionally, the endplates are formed of a resilient material in a leaf spring design suchthat, while the central portion of the end plates are resilientlyinterconnected to the bolster, the end portions of the leaf spring endplates, which support the wheeled axles of the truck therebetween, areresilient deformable in a vertical direction relative to theaforementioned assembled truck. It has been found that such a structurecan be efliciently manufactured from molded plastic parts for various ofthe described elements and especially that such a manufacture of the endplates from a resilient plastic material such as a polyformaldehydesynthetic polymer yields unexpec edly unique operating characteristicsin the scale model railway system.

Heretofore, model railway trucks have been generally constructed asone-piece die-molded metal members comprising integral bolsters and endplates with separate axle and wheel assemblies for rotatable mountingwithin the bolster-end plate unitary structures. Efforts to form theone-piece trucks of the prior art from plastic have been generallyunsuccessful since the molding costs for intricately shaped plasticmembers become prohibitive and furthermore since such a one-pieceplastic member is not strong enough to absorb the shocks of use, thejuncture of the bolster and the end plates being a generally frangiblestress point. Moreover, the rigid and nonresilient nature of thegenerally H-shaped wheel housings of the prior art have been incapableof delivering a performance in model railway use which simulates theactual operating characteristics of a full-scale railway truck.

However, the present invention obviates the deficiencies of the priorart and produces an improved truck construction which may be readilyformed from plastic and which is characterized by operatingcharacteristics and responses such as start and stop, horizontal bounce,and vertical roll closely simulating those in actual railroad use. Theinvention provides a key-lock of the ends of the bolster in therespective central portions of the two end plates with spring meansurging the bolster plates into the respective receiving slots in the endplates and also provides leaf spring end plates to rotatably mount thewheeled axles therebetween. The bolster is thus horizontally deflectableat either or at both of its ends and the end plates are likewisevertically defiectable at either or at both of their respective endssuch that a railway car carried on the truck will bounce and roll andrespond to track curvatures and irregularities and graded inclines in afashion quite similar to that of a real railway car in actual use.

In addition to the simulation of actual railroad operation, themulti-directional resiliency of the subject truck assembly assures amore positive operation and more realistic acceleration characteristicsfor the model railroad equipment as well as a diminution in annoying andoften destructive track derailments. Furthermore, the subject ice truckassembly is characterized by a unique and simplified assembly anddisassembly such that a hobbyist may readily assemble the finishedstructure from knockeddown kit form and may readily disassemble thestructure to replace individual parts.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide amulti-directional resiliency for the wheel supporting frame of a modelrailway truck assembly in order to improve the operating characteristicsthereof.

It is another object of this invention to provide a model railroad truckassembly which may be assembled or disassembled in a simple andexpeditious fashion in order to provide an economically practical andrealistically appearing piece of scale model equipment, for sale in acompo nent knocked-down kit form or as an assembled unit.

It is a related object of this invention to provide a model railroadtruck assembly which may be constructed by molding certain of thecomponent parts thereof from plastic.

These and other objects and advantages of this invention willhereinafter appear, and for purposes of illustration, but not oflimitation, an embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanyingdrawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an assembled resilient model railwaytruck embodying the concepts of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the structure of FIG. 1, partially brokenaway to show details of construction;

FIG. 3 is a front elevational view, partially in section along the line33 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary view similar to FIG. 2, showing a modified truckassembly incorporating a metallic leaf spring as a current pick-up.

In the drawing, the novel resilient model railway truck assembly 1 isseen to comprise a cross-bolster 2, end plates 4, spring means 8resiliently interconnecting the bolster 2 and the end plates 4, andaxles 6 journaled for rotation between the end plates 4.

The bolster 2 is generally rectangular in form and is provided with abearing housing 10 at the midportion thereof for connection with asuitable lug of the model railway car (not shown) which is to besupported by the novel truck assembly. Adjacent the respective ends ofthe bolster 2, generally I-shaped grooves 15 are provided by therecessed channel slots 14 oppositely disposed across the stem 16 of theI-shaped grooves 15. The bolster 2 may be tapered and recessed as shownat 12 in order to simulate actual railroad truck structure.

The end plates 4 each comprise a generally rectangular middle portion'18 and two oppositely disposed triangular portions 20 contiguous withthe said middle portion .18. The middle portion 18 is provided with aT'-shaped slot 22 as indicated by the stem 32 and the head 32a thereof.The triangular end portions 20 are provided with triangular openings 24extending through the end plate 4 so that the cross braces 25, -27 aredefined separating the middle portion 1 8 and the end portions 20 andbracing the peripheral portion 29 of the end plate 4-.

Adjacent the respective outer ends of the end portions 20 and integrallyformed therewith are the wheel bearing flanges 26, which compriseconical recesses 28 each adapted to support an end portion of the axles6 in a manner to be subsequently described. The end plates 4 may beprovided with decorative attachments, such as the lugs 30, in order tomore adequately simulate real railroad truck assemblies.

The end plates 4 art each provided with protruding shelves 31 whichextend from the bottom of the head 32a of the T-shaped slot 22. Twonodules 34 are positioned on the shelf 31, and two correspondinglyaligned nodules 17 are provided on the underside 19' of the crossbolster2.

The spring means 8 comprise helical coil springs 36 which resilientlyinterconnect the cross bolster 2 and the end plates 4 by suitablepositioning of the coil springs 36 between the nodules 17 and 34.Instead of the nodules 17 and 3 4, recesses could be formed on the shelf31 add on the underside 19 of the cross-bolster 2 for positioning of thecoil springs 36.

The axles 6 are provided with conically tapered end portions 42 whichare suitable for positioning in the conical recesses 28 of the endplates 4 so that the axle 6 may be rotatably journaled between theparallelly aligned end plates 4. The axles 6 are provided with wheels 38rigidly secured thereto for rotation therewith, and the wheels 38 areprovided with flanges 40 in a wellknown manner such that the wheels 38can ride upon and be guided by suitably positioned tracks (not shown).

To assemble the novel truck assembly 1, the end portions of thecross-bolster 2 are respectively guided through the head portions 32a ofthe T-shaped slots of the end plates 4 until the stem 16 of the=I-shaped groove of the bolster 2 is aligned beneath the stem 32 of theT- shaped slot 22 of the end plates 4. The cross-bolster 2 is thenraised to :intermesh with the respective stems '16 and 32 and thus toform a key-lock. The helical coil springs 36' are positioned about therespective nodules 17, 34 to maintain the described key-lock with the I-shaped slot 15 of the bolster 2 positioned within the T- shaped groove22 of the end plates 4.

The axles 6 with the wheels 38 attached thereto are then positionedbetween the end plates 4 by inserting the conically tapered points 42 ofthe axle 6 in the conical recess 28. FIG. 4 shows a modification of theaxle housings in that a metallic leaf spring 60 is provided forinsertion in a slot 62 of the cross-bolster 2. The spring 60 is providedwith conical recesses 64, the exterior surfaces 66 of whch are receivedin the conical recesses 28 of the end plates 4 and the interior surface68 of which receive the tapered points 42 of the axles 6. Suit able wireleads :(not shown) are attached to the spring 60 such that current inthe tracks over which the truck assembly rides is conducted through thewheels 38 and through the spring 60 for energization of the supportedscale model rail-way car in a conventional manner. Springs 60 may bepositioned adjacent each end plate 4 as desired.

The disassembly of the composite structure is of course effected by thereversal of the previously described steps, that is, by removing theaxles 6, the coil springs 36, and by removing the I-shaped grooves 15 ofthe cross-bolster 2 from the T-shaped slots 22 of the end plates 4.

The described simple and expeditiously formed interconnection of thevarious components affords a rigid and sturdy truck assembly which isresiliently deformable in various directions to absorb the stresses towhich the truck assembly is subject under operation. For example, thebolster 2 may be depressed and elevated relative to the end plates 4 bycompression and expansion of the springs 36. Likewise, the end plates 4may be skewed relative to each other in which case the axles 6therebetween would be correspondingly skewed relative to each other.Also, either axle 6 may be rotated relative to the other by retainingone of the axles 6 in position, applying a force to the cross-bolster 2(such as the weight of the supported railway car), and rotating theother axle 6 and the end plates 4 upwardly towards the crossbolster 2,thereby compressing the springs 36.

Another unique feature of the composite inter-assembly resides in theleaf spring conifiguration of the end plates 4. When the end plates 4are formed of a suitable resilient material, such as a resilientsynthetic plastic, axial forces along the axles 6 will result indeflection of the triangular end portions of the end plates 4 relativeto the key-locked middle portion 18 thereof. The described deflection ofthe triangular end portion 20 may occur at any one of the end portions20 or at two of the end portions 20 of the same end plate 4 at the sametime or at all four of the triangular end portions 20 of two aligned endplates4 at the same time. Moreover, the leaf spring deflection of theend plates 4 may occur either alone as described or in combination withany of the other resilient deformations of the composite assembly.

It has been found that formation of the leaf spring end plates 4 andpreferably also of the bolster 2 from a polyformaldehyde syntheticplastic (such as the type commercially available from E. I. du Pont deNemours & Co., Inc., under the trade name Delrin) gives especiallyadvantageous results in that the strength, weight, and resiliency of thecomposite truck combine to support and carry a scale model railway car(which is usually constructed of molded plastic) in a mannercharacterized by unexpected realism in operation. Moreover, since thebolster and the end plates are individual component parts, the moldingthereof is rendered feasible under present day commercial techniques.

It should be apparent that the composite model railway truck assemblycomprising the subject invention provides a construction which may bereadily assembled and disassembled with a minimum of ettort to form asturdy model railway truck which may be resiliently deformed in variousdirections in order to more realistically simulate the movements andresponses of actual railroad operation, to assure a more positiveoperation of the model railway equipment by virtue of its ability toabsorb irregularities in its guiding track structure, and to diminishderailrnents of the truck from its guiding track structure by virtue ofthe extreme [latitudes of resiliency exhibited by the assembled truck.

It should also be apparent that the truck aswmbly as described may besold to the ultimate consumer in an assembled form as a building unitfor model railway equipment, in an attached form to a model railway car,or in a knocked-down kit form for subsequent assembly by the individualhobbyist.

It should be understood that various changes and modifications may bemade in the details of construction, arrangements, operations, andmaterials for the various elements without departing from the spirit andthe scope of the invention, as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A model railway truck consisting of a bolster having I-grooves in therespective ends thereof;

two resilient plastic end plates of leaf spring configuration eachlocated near a respective end of said bolster and each comprising agenerally rectangular middle portion and two oppositely disposedtriangular portions contiguous with the said middle portion, therespective middle portions of the said end plates having T-shaped slotstherein;

spring means interconnecting said plates to said bolster comprising coilsprings located within said T-shaped slots of the end plates andparallel to the said I- grooves of the bolster, and means provided onsaid bolster and on said end plates to maintain said coil springs inposition between said bolster and said end plates;

and wheel means each comprising an axle with wheels mounted thereupon,each said axle being parallel to said bolster and positioned betweensaid end plates,

the stems of the said I-grooves of the said bolster being keyed inposition within the stems of the said T-shaped slots of the said endplates, so as to allow relative resilient movement of any one of thebolster, end plates, or axles relative to any or all of the others.

2. The truck of claim 1 wherein each said end plate is provided withconically recessed axle bearings and each said axle is provided withconically tapered end portions adapted for rotatable mounting withinsaid recessed bearings.

3. A knocked-down kit adapted for assembly into a in a verticaldirection relative to said tmek; and spring model railway truckcomprising: means resiliently interconnecting the said end plates toaxles and Wheels mounted thereon; the said bolster. end plates forrotatabtly housing said axles, the said end plates being resilientplastic members each hav- 5 References Cited in the file of this 132mmting a leaf spring configuration; UNITED STATES PATENTS a cross-bolsterfor supporting said end plates; and spring means for resilientlyinterconnecting the 1871778 Clasen 1932 2,284,998 Varney June 2, 1942 413 2 333 i ff fi h ad whfieLsu 2,406,199 Clasen Aug. 20, 194 6 a r y 510 2,903,974 Smith Sept. 15, 1959 ported frame comprising a bolster; twoplastic end plates, said end plates comprising means resilientlydeformable

4. IN A MODEL RAILWAY TRUCK, AN H-SHAPED WHEEL-SUPPORTED FRAMECOMPRISING A BOLSTER; TWO PLASTIC END PLATES, SAID END PLATES COMPRISINGMEANS RESILIENTLY DEFORMABLE IN A VERTICAL DIRECTION RELATIVE TO SAIDTRUCK; AND SPRING